what is your sense of the american economy? there are some signs that the economy is actually beginning to recover. housing is back. but yet the actual gdp numbers don't seem to move much. what do you think? >> there are some good sighs. housing is back a boon in ener. that could be a real wild card for us because low-cost energy dependence should be a goal, and consumers have paid down a lot of debt. the bad side of the ledger is there is increasing debt at the state and federal level. if you think back, in 1982, there was a large outcry when the national debt passed 1 trillion. we are now netting 1 trillion per year. it's close to 16 trillion adding 1 trillion per year. soon the interest on the debt could equal the whole debt since 1982 when you and i were here. i think it's a solvable problem, though. simpson bowles goes a long way to solving that, and i'm hoping the next president will address that. the president can only do so much. we've got to get the congress together to get the deficit down. you have a road map there i